<div dir="ltr"><div>In response to the open May theme and since the list has been relatively quiet I'd like to share with the list the hack of HEK's (<a href="http://www.hek.ch/">http://www.hek.ch/</a>) audience award poll I undertook this week. In addition, I wish to ask if list members were aware of this award, its poor organisation and if they had any comments to contribute about it all? Below are details that explain what occurred and at the bottom the short post and video of the hack that was posted through social media.</div><div><br></div><div>-----------------------------------------<br></div><div><br></div><div>Since 2016 HEK the Haus der elektronischen Kunste (House of electronic Art) <span style="line-height:1.5">in Basel have organised a net-based award for art that employs the </span><span style="line-height:1.5">"Internet as a platform for artistic activities". In addition to a jury </span><span style="line-height:1.5">prize, an audience award is voted for by internet users on HEK's website. </span><span style="line-height:1.5">Votes are cast through Pinpoli, a web-based poll system, that can and has </span><span style="line-height:1.5">been easily hacked in the past. The poll was hacked in 2017, presumably by </span><span style="line-height:1.5">one of the artists nominated for the award, with first and second places </span><span style="line-height:1.5">surpassing other nominations by over 1400 votes. Yet for the 2018 award </span><span style="line-height:1.5">HEK continue to use the same flawed polling system.</span></div><div><br></div><div>As a consequence, the award is reduced to little more than a fixed <span style="line-height:1.5">popularity contest. It is discussed on social media with derision, users </span><span style="line-height:1.5">and artists wonder not which artwork will win but instead which hacker or </span><span style="line-height:1.5">bot will dominate the voting. This is unjust to nominated works and does </span><span style="line-height:1.5">not raise the credibility or profile of net-based art.</span></div><div><br></div><div>In the last week of voting I deployed a clicking application through <span style="line-height:1.5">TorBrowser to cast over a thousand votes. It raised several of the poorly </span><span style="line-height:1.5">performing nominations above the winning nominations and arbitrarily </span><span style="line-height:1.5">selected one to win by an exaggerated number of votes. The intention was </span><span style="line-height:1.5">to undermine HEK's confidence in their poll, confound the process of </span><span style="line-height:1.5">selection of the audience award and hopefully sufficiently embarrass HEK to </span><span style="line-height:1.5">abolish it in coming years.</span></div><div><br></div><div>-----------------------------------------<br></div><div><br></div><div><div>Dear HEK - Haus der elektronischen Kunste, Basel</div><div><br></div><div>What the heck?</div><div><br></div><div>Your net-based audience award is a joke and discussed on social media with <span style="line-height:1.5">derision. Users and artists wonder not which artwork will win but instead </span><span style="line-height:1.5">which hacker or bot will dominate the voting. Your absolute trust in </span><span style="line-height:1.5">net-based technologies belies your ignorance about the very form and </span><span style="line-height:1.5">platform you aspire to promote. The award's poll has been hacked for the </span><span style="line-height:1.5">second year running - this time by me. I have no vested interest in the </span><span style="line-height:1.5">nominees or who wins, simply that you cease to use such a ridiculous </span><span style="line-height:1.5">selection process and abolish the audience award in coming years as its </span><span style="line-height:1.5">selection is unjust to nominated works and does not raise the credibility </span><span style="line-height:1.5">or profile of net-based art.</span></div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhBqPtoVuSI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhBqPtoVuSI</a></div><div><br></div><div>-----------------------------------------</div></div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Fri, May 11, 2018 at 11:44 PM Renate Terese Ferro <<a href="mailto:rferro@cornell.edu">rferro@cornell.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------<br>
Dear –empyre- Subscribers, <br>
With the end of the semesters and May ticking away this open month of –empyre- is waiting for anyone to post a new project they are working on or something they would like to share? <br>
Anyone beginning a new research project? Feel free to post. Best, <br>
Renate<br>
<br>
Renate Ferro<br>
Visiting Associate Professor<br>
Director of Undergraduate Studies<br>
Department of Art<br>
Tjaden Hall 306<br>
<a href="mailto:rferro@cornell.edu" target="_blank">rferro@cornell.edu</a><br></blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><span>regards<br>Garrett<br>_________________<br><a rel="nofollow" href="mailto:Garrett@asquare.org" target="_blank">Garrett@asquare.org</a><br><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.asquare.org/" target="_blank">http://www.asquare.org/</a></span></div></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div>Current events and soon:</div><div><br></div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12.8px">Real Virtuality </span><span style="font-size:12.8px">The </span><span style="font-size:12.8px">Networked </span><span style="font-size:12.8px">Art </span><span style="font-size:12.8px">of </span><span style="font-size:12.8px">Garrett Lynch</span><span style="font-size:12.8px">:</span></div><div dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.filmwinter.de/en" target="_blank">http://realvirtuality.peripheralforms.com/</a></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">A network of people who attended an exhibition and contributed to the creation of this work<br></div><div dir="ltr"><a href="http://asquare.org/work/peoplenetwork/" target="_blank">http://asquare.org/work/peoplenetwork/</a><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div>Pick up a postcard and participate at any of the following galleries: Aksioma Institute for Contemporary Art (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Bannister Gallery (Rhode Island, USA), Centro ADM (Mexico City, Mexico), Centro de Cultura Digital (Mexico City, Mexico), Gallery XY (Olomouc, Czech Republic), Gedok (Stuttgart, Germany), Guest Room (North Carolina, USA), Human Ecosystems (Rome, Italy), Kunst Museum (Stuttgart, Germany), Laboratorio Arte Alameda (Mexico City, Mexico), Le Wonder (Bagnolet, France), MUTE (Lisbon, Portugal), NYU Art Gallery (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates), Open Signal (Portland, USA), Plymouth Arts Centre (Plymouth, England), The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art (Plymouth, England), Transfer Gallery (New York, USA), Upfor Gallery (Portland, USA), Watermans (London, England), Wilhelmspalais (Stuttgart, Germany), WOWA (Riccione, Italy), ZKM | Center for Art and Media (Karlsruhe, Germany)</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>